How to Use Your Feet in a Shiatsu Shoulder Massage

Learn how to use your feet to give a shiatsu shoulder massage from shiatsu practitioner Shandoah Goldman in this Howcast video.

Transcript

I'm going to demonstrate how to use the feet to release the shoulders. I'm going to start by just covering up the eyes of the receiver. Then I'm going to place one foot using the arch of my foot right over her shoulder. It kind of just molds right over that. Then I'm going to take my other foot and place it over the other one. Then reaching underneath the base of the skull with my hands, finding a counter-balance as I lean back with my own body and push forward with my feet.

There's a really nice stretch happening on the sides of the neck here. Then I can do one foot and then the other and find some motion by alternating side to side. This is very gentle. I just want to get her body moving on its own. I'm just initiating that and then waiting for the response. Then I can also send some weight into my right foot as I pull slightly back with the neck, stretching the right side primarily, and again, the other side. And ending in the center, so that she feels that alignment and symmetry.

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After doing this technique you can really see how much space has been created between the top of the shoulder and the head and the neck. It's a really great way to send energy down into the shoulders as well as lengthen up through the spine, and create more space and ease at the top of the shoulders.